online press release service sample book press release

Give journalists some time to craft a story around your press release by sending it to them — under embargo — the day before it officially goes live. (FYI under embargo just means they aren’t allowed to share the information in the press release until the time you specify.)
In almost all cases, we would recommend eReleases or PR Web over PR Newswire. However, PR Newswire does offer a unique feature — if you opt for their premium option at $399, then the image in your press release will be broadcast in Times Square. This likely won’t generate the same kind of media attention or online exposure that submitting your press release to newswires will, but you could capture an image of the broadcast for use in future promotional materials.
Free press releases can be an important part of a larger SEO marketing strategy. They can be a great complement to other search engine tactics and can bolster your social media profiles, blogs, and other content marketing tactics.
If you were going to write a press release about your new product, it needs to be newsworthy. In other words, nobody wants to read a press release that just says, “Hey, we made a thing!” Instead, arrange your press release so that it includes the most unique benefits of your new product.
The new Chinese line of phones features localized Chinese apps and charts of the most sought-after paid and free apps available in China. The phones also give users access to the world’s largest catalog of apps featuring over 450,000 apps in 30 categories including sports, news, games, business, and travel.
The lead, or first sentence, should grab the reader and say concisely what is happening. For example, if the headline is Careen Publishing releases new WWII novel, the first sentence might be something like, Carpren Publishing, Ltd., today released their first World War II novel by celebrated writer Darcy Kay. It expands the headline enough to fill in some of the details, and brings the reader further into the story. The next one to two sentences should then expand upon the lead.
The press release is also effective because of its multifaceted storytelling. It highlights a public figure’s connection to the local community (the same area served by our client). It balances writing about the dentist and his practice with the famous person who became his patient. And it uses multimedia: Graham spoke about his experience with our client on-camera and appeared in a number of pictures in the client’s office, which enriched our press release with unique content that is worth more than a thousand words.
In this paragraph, briefly expand a little bit about the band and the music on the album. This paragraph is very important for a new band with a debut album. Don’t mistake this for a band bio – which should be separate – but include some info about where the band comes from, influences, and again, any big ticket selling points. Keep this paragraph brief.
SEO expert Jeremy Levey, now with Mars Med Supply, recalls when he worked at CardCash.com and the company signed up for a 12-month unlimited press release plan in 2013. “We sent many press releases with a decent amount of links and got little SEO boost from it. We actually saw the drop in effectiveness over the course of 2013 and we just dropped it towards the end,” he told online marketing agency Local Fame.
As the internet has gained prevalence the way journalists like to be approached has also changed. A format suggested by Kristen Nicole, a former Mashable writer who is now the Senior Managing Editor of SiliconANGLE.com. is sending one sentence as to why this story works for my publication, and 5 bullet points for context. Kristen also recommends pitching writers directly over pitching editors saying:
Hi Sam! Thank you for the comment. The rule to always follow with a press release is if you don’t have something impressive to share/show, then don’t. It’s great that you have art assets done, but I’m not sure if that is enough to go on. Perhaps if you had a free, playable demo in addition to the art assets, or were inviting people to a beta, etc., then you could for the announcement-type press release, but without those extra, impressive items, I may hold off. Hope that helps.
You don’t want to pique a journalist’s interest only to have that person scrounging and searching to find who to call for more information. Contact information can either be at the top or bottom of the page and should include the name, e-mail, and title of whomever the media contact for the story is. Usually, it will be your company spokesperson or a dedicated staff person familiar with the topic who can answer reporters’ questions.
If you send a well-written press release with links to all relevant assets to reporters, they’ll have everything they need to write a story. Occasionally – less than half of the time, in our experience – you’ll get contacted for more information or an additional quote.
This last sentence or two focuses on the future. If you’re supporting a candidate, for example, you can say what date the election is held, and what the stakes are. If you’re advertising an event, you can note that it’s annual and the next one is already scheduled. Simply wrap up by looking ahead in some way. This is a very short paragraph, sometimes only a sentence!
Let’s talk about the format of your press release. Format is crucial and is not to be underestimated. If you get the format right, you are halfway there. The other half is getting it in front of the right people: Click here to open our recommended press release distributor in a new window.
Simply put, if you are able to package information about your book into a format which grabs a journalist’s attention, make it so they don’t have to put much work into your article to publish it, and it seems like it would be of interest to their audience, then Bingo! You’ve won the holy grail of free publicity.
Thousands of news and releases go live daily. Not every author is aware that the bulk of these PR distributions end up undiscovered by desired reporters. Forbes magazine makes a startling statement. They state that the majority of businesses that publish a press release “wait for the inevitable flood of phone calls, emails and congratulations that never come. Even when they use a service like PR Newswire or Business Wire, many releases end up on page 67 of an independent TV station website in Reno, Nevada that few will ever read.”
Press releases over the years have generally followed a standard format, including the same basic pieces of important information. And despite other changes to best practices, every press release still must include the following:
No matter what it is, a press release must read like a news story. When writing about a positive press release, you must ensure to use appropriate keywords so that it can be optimized and come on the top of the search engines.
Written a book and want people to know about its existence? Put your words into a press release and let your marketing team do the distribution for you. You can use the following press release template.
As standard all press releases must adhere to the following structure: Date format, headline, summary, body text, quotes, final information and notes to editors. Please bare this in mind when viewing the templates and writing your own.
At the bottom of your press release should be the contact info for the person fielding press queries for the album, even if this information is also at the top of your page. Set this information apart from the body of your press release in the same manner as you did the header – again, a box around the text works great, as does a larger type size or bolding/italicizing the text.
Proofread your release, read it out loud, and if possible, have more than one person read it before sending it out. While you don’t want everyone to get a chance to tweak every release, you want to make very sure there are no embarrassing typos or incorrect information on there.
Hi Makori, thanks for the comment and great question. The headline and the first sentence are both incredibly important and should both be treated as grabbers. I would argue that the headline is the most important element though because it is often the element that gets people to click and read the press release.
It can be tempting to provide superfluous facts and tidbits about your company or the development of your announcement — we sometimes think a piece of writing is lacking if it isn’t drawn-out and just shy of being a novella. However, a press release needs to be helpful and concise.
If you’re writing a press release to send to a journalist you need to think (and write) like a journalist. You need to be able to pitch a story that captures the attention of the journalist you’re pitching to.
Seek Inbound Links. The more inbound links they receive, the more respect they will earn and the higher they will rank in search engines. The higher they rank in search engines, the more visible your press release will become, and the more traffic you will receive.